


Training Wheels

by Living_Underground



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Christmas? Maybe?, F/M, Fluff, Maybe - Freeform, Post-Episode: s06e06 How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, The start of something, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:49:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23584885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Living_Underground/pseuds/Living_Underground
Summary: 'If we were meant to be, we would have been by now,' Billie Eilish.Scully has doubts about whether Mulder and herself would work as a couple. He assuages those doubts.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 4
Kudos: 49





	Training Wheels

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to Watch by Billie Eilish earlier and I just...I don't know. This kind of happened. I mean, it took, like, thirty minutes. It's not much. I ended up spending more time researching neutron stars than I did writing it, because, you know, knowledge wormholes. 
> 
> If you want someone to infodump about neutron stars and supernovas, though, I'm your girl.
> 
> Um, I kind of envisioned it at the end of How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, despite the fact that I don't believe that is when they first got together. I just...actually I don't really know why I put it there, I just did. It doesn't really have to go there though, you can imagine it wherever you want it to go.
> 
> So, uh, yeah. Enjoy. Or don't. You know, whatever.  
> Maybe I just shouldn't write notes. I waffle and come across as apathetic. I mean, that's how I come of irl, too, but, you know...

His lips were chapped. Hers were, too, though she had applied cocoa butter before she had headed over to his place. That’s what you get for spending the night in a cold, draughty, haunted house. But, despite the dry lips, the kiss was soft. Gentle. Sweet. And not enough for her fears to be put to rest. ‘Don’t you think, Mulder, that if it were meant to be, you and me, it would have happened by now? We would have…I don’t know…’ she trailed off, pulling her gaze from his lips, her chin from his fingers, as she focused on the half-empty bottle of wine and torn wrapping paper on his coffee table.

‘I…sorry. I shouldn’t have…you think this would be a mistake?’ The hurt on his face was clear, his eyes like a kicked puppy.

‘No, I…yes, no, I don’t know. No. I. No. No, I don’t…I don’t know. I just…surely, if we were meant to be together, if this was something that would work out and last, surely, we would have, I don’t know, attempted it earlier, years ago? How do we know it’s not just, I don’t know, the pressure of the last few weeks breaking? I just don’t want to lose everything we have together.’

Mulder contemplated that, leaning back from her and studying the profile of her face as he did so. A blush was deep on her cheeks. ‘Maybe that’s why it’s taken us so long. I mean, other than sex, we’re practically married.’ Her head snapped up to look at him, face now cherry red.

‘Don’t they say that sex stops with marriage?’ A coy smile.

He snorted. ‘There you have it, we’re married. We spend all of our time together and don’t have sex.’ His smile disarmed her and she slumped backwards into his couch, bumping her shoulder against his. ‘What I mean is, maybe all this time we were just practising. Maybe we haven’t actually, you know, started anything, because we weren’t ready. The last five years just show us that we are big enough and brave enough and bold enough and strong enough to not burn one another out. And they have shown us how we do antagonise one another, and how we do get on one another’s nerves, and how, when that happens, we cope and deal with it. Think of the last five years like training wheels.’

She rolled her eyes at him. ‘A long time to learn to ride a bike.’

‘Ah, but once you’ve learned, you have that skill for life. You never forget it. Besides, we should be extra good at it with all of this training.’ He brought his knuckles up to her chin, brushing her lips lightly with his thumb. ‘If you don’t think this is a good idea, then I respect that, Scully. But, personally, I would like to graduate from the training wheels and see how this thing rolls without them.’

‘What if we fall?’

He smiled, leant in and pressed a kiss, chaste and barely there, to the corner of her mouth. ‘Then I’ll catch you.’

‘What if we crash?’

‘Well,’ he breathed, butterflying his lips up her jawbone to her ear. ‘We better make it spectacular if we do, crash and burn as bright as the stars.’

‘Even the stars burn out at some point, Mulder,’ she was leaning into him now, her hands starting to roam.

‘But not for millions and millions of years. We’ll both be long gone before the sky is dark, Scully, and we will have been the brightest star out there.’ He pulled back, cradling her face in his hand, tucking a flame of hair behind her ear, and a smile so swirling in emotion, full of suggestion and hope and tenderness and passion all at once, graced his lips. ‘What do you say, Scully? Shall we take these training wheels off? Will you crash with me?’

They collided, a neutron star forming in their gravitational pull, the supernova explosion filling their worlds with life as they burned.

**Author's Note:**

> So um...yeah. That last line isn't really what I wanted, but, um, I couldn't quite figure it out. I dunno. If you enjoyed, which you probably didn't, but if you did, I guess, come say hi, because I'm bored and feeling melancholy.


End file.
